Contents

The Lunar Ruins' floors are randomized, and players will rarely experience the same pattern of floors twice. However, there are a few particular patterns.

There are ten sets of floors of which the sequence of the sets of floors is fixed. In each set, there are three normal floors and the fourth is a gate floor, which contains a save point, a door to each game character's challenge (Trial), except the tenth set, which leads to Zeromus EG, and a stairway that leads in another set of floors (three normal floors and a gate floor). Each floor is chosen randomly.

In the normal floors the player just needs to reach the exit. There are enemies to battle and treasures to find.

There are two villages that sell rare items and equipment at prices in upwards of 100,000 gil. By this time the player should be able to afford such prices, as enemies are likely leaving over 20,000 gil a battle.

Shrines with Sylphs are occasionally found. If only one Sylph is found, the characters will be healed. If there are three Sylphs, in addition of the full heal, the player will receive a Megalixir.

There are floors where old men give the player a quiz. If answered correctly, the player will receive a prize and/or the exit.

In challenge floors the player must conquer a challenge to win. In one, the player must memorize a code and find and hit the buttons in the order given; in another, they must find and kill a "Platinum Toad" for a man.

"Floors of Remembrance" mirror the floors of previous dungeons the player has visited, and they can encounter enemies from that dungeon in addition to new enemies. Any treasures that existed in the original dungeon will be present, but the items they contain will be different—some also have chests added where previously there were none.

There is a floor entirely of Flan monsters resistant to physical attacks, and another of monsters resistant to magic. NPCs will appear when the player enters these floors to tell them about this.

There are floors where mini-bosses or special enemies appear on the map, and the party must navigate through them to proceed.

Finally, near the bottom of the shrine the player may find a floor containing the Brachioraidos, the hardest boss in the game. A man at the floor entrance warns the player not to face it. It drops the strongest shield in the game, the Hero's Shield, which can be acquired nowhere else.

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This is the list of the floors of the Lunar Ruins. This order is not the real one, some floors (with the exception of some) are randomized.

Lunar Ruins

Name

Type

Enemies

Treasures

Notes

Entrance

Entrance

None

None

This is where exploration begins, and if here for the first time, a voice will give the small tutorial.

Gateway

Gateway

None

None

Every fourth floor of each set (not counting the entrance) will be a gateway floor, where players can choose to either save, warp out (forced to restart again), or to start a trial (see below), or to go on with the exploration (a stairway behind the trial door).

The first three floors (in random order) explored, will be of this type, they use the tileset of the Lunar Subterrane, simply reach the exit, fight enemies and find treasure (even hidden behind secret passages). There are various floors of this type.

A "resting" floor, the place is filled with only white chocobos (which fully restore MP). The exit is located in the eastmost area, but before doing it, it's suggested to dash against every tree to find secret passages, which may contain treasures.

The only floors which the player is guaranteed to find are the Trials. The Trials are unlocked for each character once they defeat Zeromus, testing the player in multiple ways, and end with battles against Lunar versions of the summons. After defeating one of the Lunar Summons, the player gains a Grimoire for that summon, and is able to summon the Lunar Summon in battle once.

After completing a trial, the player gets either an ultimate weapon or accessory for the character whose trial is completed. To redo a trial, the player must first use the Grimoire gained from defeating the Lunar Summons in their respective trials.

Edward winds up in an illusion of Damcyan Castle's ruins, covered in ice and snow. The party is attacked by a Specter. It cannot be killed through normal means, but Edward uses the Requiem Harp to Sing and instead of the usual effect, he plays a Requiem, thus giving the tortured soul eternal rest. All the Specters (blue flames) throughout the ruins must be killed and Edward must use Sing while equipped with the Requiem Harp to lay it to rest. The spirit must be killed once before Edward will use Requiem. The party eventually finds an underground waterway and reaches a room where a fight with Lunar Shiva ensues. After her defeat, Edward gets the Harmony Ring, which changes his Sing ability into Chant, casting Protect and Shell on the party.

Rydia enters a cave filled with mist. She turns back into a child, and Ifrit, Titan, Ramuh, and Shiva abandon her. The party must find them and defeat them to regain them. After defeating them the mist dissipates, and the party fights Lunar Mist Dragon. After defeating it, the player gets the Mist Ring, which improves Rydia's Mist Dragon summon and grants the party the Blink status.

Cecil enters a castle and is addressed by an unknown voice, who tests his abilities to do good deeds as a paladin. Cecil progresses through several rooms where he must prove himself as a true paladin by doing good deeds, such as by not taking treasures from others, fulfilling requests properly, and so forth. Cecil meets the king of the castle who gives him a sword based on the trial's success. If he does everything right, Cecil gets his ultimate weapon, the Lightbringer. If he fails even one test, he gets a weaker weapon, and gets a useless Throw item for Edge if he fails all of them. The player fights Lunar Odin regardless of which weapon they received.

Rosa enters a town that is promptly destroyed. She must heal the injured townsfolk, fourteen in all, although some are just Metamorpha in disguise. After healing as many as possible before the time runs out, the party fights Lunar Asura. After her defeat, if Rosa healed all fourteen people, she gets the White Ring, which turns her Pray command into Miracle.

Edge winds up in a labyrinthine castle. He finds his way to the king and compliments the castle, but is dropped into another portion. He must find his way back to the king through a series of hidden passages, Pitfalls, traps, switches, and so forth. The Palace Guards drop Keys if defeated, needed for doors. After the ordeals, the player fights Lunar Ifrit. Edge gets the Hanzo Gloves, which turns his Steal command into Plunder, increasing the chances of a successful steal, as well attacking at the same time.

Kain enters the town of Baron where there have been several murders by a lance-wielding assailant. Kain investigates, and after Rosa is kidnapped, he is suspected as the culprit and is arrested. Kain clears his name, but does not feel content, and during the night, he sees Cecil walk into the Devil's Road house. Kain follows him and is warped to a strange mirror room where Rosa is bound and Cecil is unconscious on the floor.

In the mirror, he sees the dark reflection of himself, which is tempting him to kill Cecil. Kain can elect to do this, but the trial will end. Kain refuses, and must engage in simple combat with a Shadow version of himself, which transforms into Lunar Bahamut. After Kain defeats Lunar Bahamut, he gets Abel's Lance, his ultimate weapon, which sometimes casts Tornado when he attacks, even if the enemy is immune to it, as well as the Dragoon Gloves, which allow him to Double Jump and increase his power.

Cid appears on an island, near his airship. A person on the airship asks him to fly him to a destination before the timer reaches a certain limit. At the destination, another person arrives and wants to be flown to another destination in a lesser time limit. After a while, Lunar Ramuh is angered about Cid flying all over his skies and attacks. After his defeat, and if all of the passengers are delivered on time, Cid gets the Fiery Hammer, his ultimate weapon, which casts Flare at random when he attacks.

Both Palom and Porom must be in the party to perform this trial. Palom and Porom must work as a team, inflicting various status ailments on themselves to infiltrate a series of hidden passages. Switches in one passage typically open doors in the others, forcing them to work together and the player to switch control between the two frequently. Once they reach the end of the passages, the player fights Lunar Leviathan, and Palom and Porom get the accessories Twin Stars, which enable them to cast stronger spells, including Double-Meteor, with the Twin command.

After the characters' trials, the last floor of the ruins contains the superbossZeromus EG. They can choose not to fight him and can simply warp out of the ruins. Fighting Zeromus EG earns no rewards except for his Bestiary entry.

The enemy formations in the ruins varies greatly from floor to floor, and combines enemies met throughout the game with new enemies found only in the ruins. On some floors the enemies appear on the map and can be seen and avoided.

The concept of trials relevant to specific characters and their abilities appear to be inspired from the Finale Chapter of Live A Live, a game made by Square and a majority of the Final Fantasy team at the time, three years after the release of the Super Famicom release of Final Fantasy IV, and most notably directed by Takashi Tokita, who also has an extensive profile in scenario design in the Final Fantasy series and in his career at Square.

Edge's trial bears similarities to the trial of the ninja Oboro-maru in the Live A Live series, the Dungeon of Keys. Both involve defeating enemies for keys, and navigating through a labyrinth to successfully pass the trial.

Many concepts for the Lunar Ruins were reused for Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Yang's Lunar Trial consists of him fighting his way past rows of monks, and his Challenge Dungeon is similarly a gauntlet of corridors with high-powered enemies. Rydia's Lunar Trial is to defeat Titan, Shiva, Ramuh and Ifrit before fighting the Lunar Dragon, while in The After Years the Mist Dragon returns to Rydia once Titan, Shiva, Ramuh, Ifrit, and Sylph are defeated. Porom's Challenge Dungeon has her travel around a field performing good deeds for people including healing services and must help as many as she can within a time limit, similar to Rosa's Lunar Trial. Troia Castle is frozen over by Shiva in The After Years, similar to the recreation of Damcyan in Edward's trial, while Eblan is attacked by Ifrit much as Lunar Ifrit serves as the master of the castle in Edge's trial. Dark Kain reappears in The After Years as a major antagonist, and in a flashback is shown to manifest as he did in Kain's Lunar Trial, emerging from Kain's reflection in a mirrored chamber and attacking him. The idea of the Challenge Dungeons themselves—optional bonus dungeons reflective of the characters whose tale the player is playing - is also reminiscent of the Lunar Ruins.